A power factor compensator using a force-commutated cycloconverter

The unique power factor compensator proposed uses a force-commutated cycloconverter (FCC), which constantly keeps the displacement factor of the AC system at unity regardless of the load power factor. No energy storage elements and no feedback controls are required basically in this system. An FCC with half of the load capacity can achieve a fast and complete compensation of the reactive power in the load. The extension of the basic idea leads to the development of a power factor compensator with output-voltage control, resulting in additional application areas for this compensator. A complete analytical description with experimental verification is presented